Take-home lessons from watching the running of the Preakness 5-16-2015.

Did you watch the Preakness on Saturday? The Preakness is the 2^nd race in the Triple Crown series. Once again we have a contender. American Pharoah (I know, they spelled his name wrong, I didn’t, and spellcheck keeps correcting me.), the winning bay colt, is not a particularly big boy, measuring in at an average 16.1 hands, but he seems unflappable and I’m not sure we’ve seen him go to the limit yet. Both the horse and his jockey, Victor Espinoza, seem pleasantly confident – not cocky, but just kind of nice about their possibilities.

Who knows? Maybe this horse will be the one to finally do it – win the Belmont Stakes in 3 weeks and thus become the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to win all three legs of the Triple Crown. Only 11 horses have done so.

Belmont may present the biggest challenge of all for 3 reasons:

1. American Pharoah must race on only 3 weeks’ rest while many of his opponents will have either skipped the Preakness or even face him for the first time – all on fresher legs than his.
2. At 1.5 miles, it is the longest of the three races.
3. He could just plain be getting tired of this stuff. You know how it is with athletes, at some point we just get enough of a competitive season and need to recoup.

BTW, personally I think the rules should be changed – not as some suggest and allow more recovery time between races, but to level the playing field at the Belmont. I think any horse allowed to start should have also competed in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. Oh well, but what do I know…?

But here’s what I really want to share with you. It’s a little lesson that I learned while watching. First of all, just as the horses took to the track the sky opened and all concerned were pelted (a word trainer Bob Baffert later used to describe the conditions) with buckets of rain. The camera lenses were so wet it was difficult to see. Jockeys tried to tuck their chins into non-existent collars on their silks and horses blinked their eyes in futility trying to keep the rain out while their hooves splashed through the mini flash flood on the track.

While the infield was cleared of spectators just in case of lightening, in the absence of a nearby strike, the race went forward as if nothing unusual was happening.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Jockey Espinoza quickly changed his race plan. Starting at the disadvantageous gate #1, on the rail, Espinoza boldly scrapped his original strategy and as soon as they broke, hustled his horse along the rail to the front. He had to really push him. This was a daring move and rarely pays off. But, the jockey didn’t want his horse to follow anyone on a track where hooves would kick gobs of mud into the face of American Pharoah. And no one did.

So, not only did (a) the show go on no matter how much it rained and (b) the jockey quickly adapted but then (c) when he was where he wanted to be, he let up and let Pharoah find his sweet spot and settle in to regroup and run on – cool, calm and collected. (Oh that we all could do the same!) Then when push came to shove, he pushed and won by a convincing margin.

What an athlete – this horse was mentally and physically prepared to get the job done. Several times the announcers mentioned that he had not lost weight since the Kentucky Derby (aha, someone is seeing to it that his fuel is perfect). In fact, his trainer and the whole stable team that cares for this guy have balanced work, rest, and all that it takes to keep him fit and happy and, well, pardon the pun, stable.

Can we learn from him? Why the heck not?!